


Waylaid

by Tridraconeus



Category: Paladins: Champions Of The Realm (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Threats, Wanderlust, concerned boyfriend Lex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-11-30
Packaged: 2019-02-08 16:29:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12868512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tridraconeus/pseuds/Tridraconeus
Summary: “I did not expect to become the quarry of a waylaid desert prince.”“Not waylaid so much as wandering,” Sha Lin retorted. Mal'Damba shook his head and continued on despite the interruption.





	Waylaid

“Do you feel unfairly hunted?”

Sha Lin canted his head and drew his legs into a neat criss-cross underneath him, quiver and bow laid harmlessly a few feet away. Mal'Damba's cobra wound around the bow, each loop ensuring its prolonged uselessness. Mal'Damba did not allow himself to relax.

“Hunted.” His voice dropped, incredulous.

“You are an exciting quarry,” Sha Lin responded, quite seriously. Mal'Damba laughed. Hoarse, and rasping, and despite himself amused. Sha Lin relaxed further with arm set to the back and fingers splayed across the stone. Mal'Damba was reminded sharply of a jaguar, laying languid and calm to hide teeth. Claws.

“I did not expect to become the quarry of a waylaid desert prince.”

“Not waylaid so much as wandering,” Sha Lin retorted. Mal'Damba shook his head and continued on despite the interruption.

“But no. I am not hunted. You are the one trespassing.” Sha Lin, to his credit, didn't edge backwards when any reasonable man would have. Mal'Damba didn't allow that to soften his words. “You are the hunted, and it is only due to the amusement you've been for the spirits that you still breathe.”

His mask-- planes of knobthorn, a plume of feathers-- hid his own amusement. The archer hid his unease well enough, but Mal'Damba could still tell. He looked up, around, scanning the brush, the bricks and stone of the temple.

“You're welcome.”

Mal'Damba could have laughed, but he didn't think it was very funny. At any other time, perhaps! The archer was clever, glib, perhaps a mite too confident but it came off charming rather than aggravating; so Mal'Damba could overlook it, if not forgive it. Though the archer was a stranger Mal'Damba felt a warm camaraderie in his chest like he'd known him for years. There was something pleasant and familiar in his mien, something Mal'Damba used to know by heart but now could only grasp for.

The warmth gave way to unease again.

Good, Mal'Damba thought.

“Take your bow back and leave here. Do not attack me again.”

Sha Lin nodded, eager at the prospect of being reunited with his bow. Mal'Damba twitched his fingers, beckoning his snake; she twisted into air and then reappeared safely around his arm.

Wasting no time, Sha Lin grabbed his bow. He stood with that same easy grace and offered a brief sketch of a bow; at his ribs, the slightest incline of his head; and smiled. “I'll be back!”

Mal'Damba watched him go, scattering grains of sand over the ground. Somewhat grumpily, he figured it wasn't a lie.

\--

“You were gone for weeks.” Lex nosed into the crook of his shoulder and ran his hands up his sides, hips to ribs, back to his waist and skating down the sharp lines of his hips again; each movement soft, gentle, the combined weight of time and worry-- of gladness that Sha Lin was back-- warming the touch.

“I was wandering.”

“As you often do,” Lex retorted without heat. He kissed Sha Lin's jaw. Sha Lin craned his neck to kiss him properly before speaking again.

“I had an encounter with Wekono's Chosen,” he said, finally, and Lex's eyes immediately grew wide and alarmed. His hands changed from languid to worried, skating over Sha Lin's skin to find that he wasn't injured-- over the knobs of his spine, the protruding angles of the crystal in his back. Finding nothing, Lex huffed.

“Well? What happened?”

Sha Lin smiled. “We talked. He was nice.”

Lex huffed again, incredulous but relieved. “Leave it to you to befriend a spirit...”

Sha Lin hummed and kissed Lex to cut off his muttered train of thought. 

“Spirits, actually, I think.”

“Sha Lin...”

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a kudos or a comment if you liked! Love these guys.


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